After researching this forum i am a bit confused as which tire is best for replacement of my OEM dunlops.I come up on a search with the Dunlops, Yokohamas, and, weirdly, Nankang which seem to have the best reviews. At 31,000 miles and after my long trip i need to find suitable replacements at a reasonable price.I note even some posts mention yet other brands.Any POSITIVE suggestions?Thanks for any help.

First, I would definitely stay with the stock sizes. Second, I would only buy tires rated LRR if you're looking for the best range. Tires not so rated (like the Yoko's) can reduce your range noticeably

That said, the OEM Dunlops are hard to beat, but they are unreasonably (IMO) expensive. I blew out a front tire once and limped into the nearest tire store and they got me a new pair (I always replace tires in pairs) of Continental Conti Eco tires for less than $100 each . . . . and they got them there within an hour or two, so I wasn't terribly particular. They are still on the car now and seem the equal (to me at least) of the Dunlops. If I needed new tires now, they would be my choice. My Ford came with them as the factory tires, so the iMiEV now has good company in the garage

Ive got continental eco's on the front as initial replacement for the factory dunlops (still have the dunlops on the rear) - i'd say there is no noticeable difference in range or handling, and the Continentals feel as though they are made of softer rubber (but may be just cos they are newer)...

IMIEV aside, my default choice is Michellin as they last longer in my experience, when I cant get those, any of Dunlop, Continental or Pirelli seem to be about as good as eachother, so I's go for price. I had a set of Falken's on my old Toyota which were 1/3 the cost of Michelin, and to be fair, they were excellent tyres as well. Do you spell 'tyre' with an 'I' in US English... that's gone unnoticed by me all these years???

Continental only makes tires in the OEM size for the front. They don't have 175/60R15 rear tires. I've also verified that the 175/55R15 size they offer will NOT work on the I-MiEV with the OEM front size (these are offered for the Smart Fortwo).

In my experience (as I've had all three brands), Dunlops offer the best combination of ride, handling, range, and noise. The Yokohamas are quiet and handle really well, but cause a drop in range. The Continental front tires are slightly noisier and don't handle as well, but I had better range (+5 miles) and was consistently getting more than 4 miles/kWh.

The front tires on Bear are nearly gone. I think I'm going to swap over the Yokos that are on Koorz and try to quantify the range drop. Dropping $600 each year on rubber is getting old. You'd think with a massive influx of gas traffic, there'd be more than enough funding for some half-decent roads .

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PV1 wrote:In my experience (as I've had all three brands), Dunlops offer the best combination of ride, handling, range, and noise.

Unfortunately though, you have to couple that with the highest cost in dollars per mile - Like 2X higher. As usual, there's no 'free lunch' for tires just as in most other things. Luckily, the car understeers so badly, you only need one set of rears for every 2 sets of fronts